Fissures widened in the Punjab Congress on Friday after a section of leaders, including current and former legislators, gathered at former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s residence demanding his appointment as party chief in the state and the party’s central leadership to rethink the organizational reshuffle it had announced earlier this week.
In parallel, a meeting between Gurdaspur Congress MP Sukhinder Singh Randhawa and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi sparked widespread speculation, though both Randhawa and national-level Congress leaders said it was about security issues. Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in the Aam Aadmi Party-ruled state next year.
Randhawa and Chani, the incumbent MP from Jalandhar, have been appointed as chairmen of two new election-related committees announced by the party high command on Wednesday.
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But the reshuffle kept Amarinder Singh Raja Waring as president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee and Partap Singh Bajwa as leader of the opposition.
Chaney’s camp seeks leadership change
On Friday, around 60 Congress leaders, including four serving military aides and 18 former MPs and former ministers, met at Chani’s residence in Chamkur Sahib.
The four-hour meeting ended with a unanimous demand that the All India Congress Committee reconsider its recent organizational appointments, especially the decision to retain Waring, leaders who were present said.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, senior MLA Tripit Rajinder Singh Bajwa rejected suggestions of rebellion but acknowledged discontent within the party.
“Everyone discussed how to bring Congress back to power. We have asked Chani to get time from the high command so that the sentiments of Punjab workers can be conveyed. We have no problem with the high command, but the latest decision should be reconsidered in the interest of the party,” he said.
Madan Lal Jalalpur, a former member of the Indian People’s Liberation Army, said: “All is not well in the Punjab Congress. The workers want Chani to take over the leadership because he is the mass leader who can bring the Congress back to power. Under Raja Waring, the party cannot return to power.”
However, Chaney declined to make any public statement after the meeting. Later, he said in a post on social media platform
Randhawa-Shah meeting raises speculation
Earlier in the day, Randhawa sparked speculation within party circles after his meeting with Shah at Kartavia Bhawan in New Delhi. But he rejected suggestions that the meeting had any political significance, saying that this meeting was pre-scheduled to discuss the deteriorating legal situation and order in Punjab.
Read also | The reorganization of the Punjab Congress failed to impress, and the leaders fell silent as discontent emerged
The former deputy chief minister said he wrote to the prime minister on June 4, with a copy marked as Union Home Minister, expressing concern over the deteriorating security situation in the border state. According to him, Friday’s meeting was a continuation of that correspondence and focused exclusively on security issues.
Senior Congress leaders also downplayed the meeting.
“There was nothing. It was about his son’s security issue. You are speculating. But there is no problem for us,” KC Venugopal, Congress general secretary, told reporters.
Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot also defended Randhawa, saying it was normal for him to meet the Union Home Minister over security concerns.
